Referencing – The Harvard System

Accurate referencing of all written work is essential as it enables readers to (i) assess the accuracy of the writer’s interpretation of source material; (ii) check the writer’s integrity; and (iii) easily seek out material that may be of interest to their own studies.  All assignments completed for this programme of study are required to have a reference list.

There are many referencing/bibliographical systems around, the Harvard system is the system adopted by many of the prestigious healthcare journals.  More importantly, it is the system, which the Division of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work has adopted.  This means that it is the only system, which is acceptable for any work submitted by students within the Division.

The Harvard system is a standardised system.  This means that certain conventions must be adhered to (though there is some room for flexibility).  The Harvard system works on the principle that every text/article/book mentioned (“cited”) in an assignment must have a matching full reference in the final reference list.  Likewise, every full reference in the reference list must have been mentioned in the main body of the assignment.  An additional “bibliography” (which in this context means a list of texts/articles/books used, but not mentioned in the main body of an assignment) is not required.

A guide to the Referencing System will be available in the Community Area on Blackboard.

For any student who has cited throughout their summative assessment submission, but failed to provide a reference list, the assessment will be marked following which a 10% reduction will be applied by the marker.  A comment will be provided by the marker in the feedback, noting the lack of a reference list.

This change does not replace of impact on the policy pertaining to academic malpractice.

Plagiarism

As a student, you are expected to cooperate in the learning process throughout your programme of study by completing assignments of various kinds that are the product of your own study or research. For most students this does not present a problem, but occasionally, whether unwittingly or otherwise, a student may commit what is known as plagiarism or some other form of academic malpractice when carrying out an assignment. This may come about because students have been used to different conventions in their prior educational experience or through general ignorance of what is expected of them.

The University uses electronic systems for the purposes of detecting plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice and for marking.  Such systems include TurnitinUK, the plagiarism detection service used by the University.

As part of the formative and/or summative assessment process, you may be asked to submit electronic versions of your work to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems used by the University (this requirement may be in addition to a requirement to submit a paper copy of your work).  If you are asked to do this, you must do so within the required timescales.

The Division also reserves the right to submit work handed in by you for formative or summative assessment to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems used by the University.

Please note that when work is submitted to the relevant electronic systems, it may be copied and then stored in a database to allow appropriate checks to be made.